"Ian?" Alex asked, dragging out the letters of his name.
"Yeah, buddy?" he asked, briefly looking at his nephew in the rear view mirror.
"Are we nearly home yet?"
"I'm afraid not, Alex. But we are near to where we're stopping for lunch."
"McDonalds! McDonalds! McDonalds!" Alex began chanting excitedly.
"If you're good, we might get McDonald's." Ian agreed. He had already been planning on McDonalds for lunch when they stopped in the outskirts of Liverpool, but Alex didn't need to know that.
It was the last Sunday of the February half term. Ian and Alex had spent the week in Glasgow and it had actually been a holiday for both of them, mostly. Ian's only job had been to pick up a drop whilst they were at Dumbarton Castle. It was a flash drive which he had placed in a hidden compartment in his car, which was essentially a faraday cage. If the flash drive had a transmitter inside of it, its signal would no longer be able to be picked up.
Ian pulled into the car park of the shopping centre - Ian never stopped at service stations if he could help it as everything was always overpriced and there was much less choice - and glanced around him. Even when he wasn't technically working, he could never turn off his innate need to look out for danger. There was nothing unusual or out of place that he could see, so he unstrapped Alex and helped him out of his car seat.
The shopping centre was relatively quiet; Ian counted twenty three adults, including those working in the restaurants and shops, and nine children. This was another one of the things that he could never turn off about himself. Wherever he went, he was always looking out for danger, sizing people up to see if they were going to be a threat; sometimes, it was exhausting. But just as it had been outside, Ian didn't see anything that he perceived as a threat, even if he did have a niggling sense that something was going to happen. He should have decided then that they wouldn't stay here for lunch, but Alex wasn't old enough to understand, nor would he be able to ignore his hunger until they stopped somewhere else like Ian could.
"Come on then, what do you want at McDonald's?" Ian asked as they walked to the back of the small queue after using the toilets.
"Nuggets!" Alex said excitedly.
Soon enough, it was their turn to order. Ian ordered a chicken nugget Happy Meal for Alex and a burger for himself. While they were waiting for their food, they got their sauces, Ian holding the little paper cups and Alex happily depressing the plunger and watching the sauce flow out. Ian continued to look around them, but still saw nothing out of place.
Their order didn't take long to prepare, and Alex ran and found a table while Ian followed behind with their tray of food. He was excited for lunch, both because he was hungry but also because Ian didn't let him have fast food that often. They were about half way through their meal when it happened.
"Everybody get down!" The shout came from behind them and Ian looked around in horror as he realised that he had been right. A gang had appeared in the shopping centre, seemingly from nowhere; they must have been hidden upstairs, perhaps in one of the conference rooms. They were dressed completely in black, with balaclavas covering their faces, and machine guns in their hands. Ian shouldn't have ignored his intuition and stayed here for lunch - at the very least, he should have just gotten the food as a takeaway and they could have eaten it in the car, but it was too late to worry about that now.
Even as Ian pulled Alex to the floor underneath their table, he activated the SOS beacon on his watch. This would send an alert to MI6, start continuously sending a locator signal and also start sending a live audio feed so that they could listen in. Smithers had made Alex a Thomas the Tank Engine watch which had the same abilities, and Ian activated his too. If the worst happened and they got separated, at least they would know where Alex was and what was happening wherever he was. Ian was also wearing contact lenses, which were also activated by the watch, not because he needed them to be able to see, but because they contained miniature cameras to give a visual link to MI6 if it were needed.
"We have reason to believe that an agent of the British Secret Service is here. And they have something that we want." Ian thought about the memory stick that was in the hidden compartment of his car. They were referring to him. He was the agent that they were after. Or perhaps more accurately, he had the information that they wanted. How had they known that he would be here? There was no way that the flash drive was sending a signal with its location, and they hadn't been followed since he had picked it up. But he had no time to work out how they knew he was there now. Alex was his main priority.
"Ian, I'm scared," Alex said quietly. Ian had reacted quickly, so Alex's voice was masked by the commotion of people still getting to the floor.
"I know. I am too, Alex. But we'll be okay, as long as we do whatever these people say. Just sit quietly with me, okay?" He didn't know if everything would be okay but he certainly wasn't going to tell Alex that. He hated having to lie to his nephew, but he did it every day when he talked about work, so what harm would one more lie do?
"Now if the agent gives themselves up, we won't have any need for things to get ugly."
Ian glanced at his watch. He wasn't going to give himself up, even if MI6 ordered him to but he did want to see how they wanted him to play this. His contact lenses, as well as giving a visual link to MI6, allowed him to read messages on his watch that nobody else would be able to see.
'Stay down...' was the order he was being given. Good. If they had told him to give himself up in front of his nephew, they would have had to have thought that he was insane to believe that he would actually obey those orders. 'Armed Police & SAS swat team on the way…' read the next message a moment later. 'ETA 10 mins.' Well it wasn't ideal to have to wait ten minutes, but at least help was coming. He would just have to hope that the gang didn't try anything before help arrived.
Those hopes were dashed almost immediately. Clearly annoyed by the lack of an agent revealing themselves, and possibly the noise that was still going on around them, one of the gang suddenly raised their machine gun and shot a short burst of bullets into the air. Ian quickly pulled Alex into a much stronger hug, and covered his ears with his hands. There were screams, followed by silence and a fear that descended on the service station which was palpable. He uncovered Alex's ears now that the shooting had stopped, but still held him close.
"Everyone lay face down on the ground." There was a scuffling as everyone complied. Ian made sure that Alex was laying down and then lay down too, shielding him as best he could without it looking too suspicious, and holding his hand to let him know that he was still there. The gang started walking around their hostages, and to Ian's horror, started to force the children to their feet. There were cries and screams as the children were roughly picked up and forced forwards. One of them reached Ian and Alex and pulled Alex to his feet.
"Ian!" Alex cried out in panic at the same time as he shouted "Alex!" He tried to hold on, but all that he was rewarded with was the butt of the machine gun hitting his face. He reeled back, mostly acting for the benefit of the gang; he had been hit harder and with much worse things in the past. He glowered into the face of the man, but he could only see his icy blue eyes staring back at him.
Alex was pushed forwards with the other children, and Ian could only watch helplessly as they were led away. He did a quick count; the nine children that he had counted when they first arrived and Alex. The oldest was a boy who looked to be about fourteen or fifteen, and Alex was the youngest, by a significant margin. The next oldest looked to be around eight or nine. Ian looked at his watch. There were six minutes left until the police and SAS were meant to arrive. Would they get here in time?
Ben was scared, but at fourteen years old, it looked like he was the oldest in the small group of children. The youngest was a little blond boy, who looked like he could only have been four or five. If Ben was scared, he couldn't imagine how much worse the little boy must feel. They were led away from the adults and into one of the shops.
"Sit down and don't move."
The children filed in, and Ben purposefully waited until the boy had sat down, and then sat down next to him.
"I'm Ben. What's your name?"
"Alex," the little boy said tearfully.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm scared."
"I'm scared too. But I'm sure the police are on their way and they'll sort everything out."
He couldn't be sure that the police were on their way but he thought that they had to be if there were people with guns here. And it couldn't hurt to try and comfort this little boy in any way that he could. As Ben spoke, Alex shuffled over and sat in his lap, and he cradled the boy in his arms instinctively.
"Have you just been on holiday?" he asked, trying to think of anything which might distract Alex from what was going on - it was the last day of his half term, so Alex had probably been on half term too. He nodded, but didn't say anything.
"Where did you go?"
"Glasgow."
"Did you do anything fun while you were there?"
"We went to the science centre and we went boating and we walked around some castles."
"Sounds like you did a lot! What was your favourite thing that you did?" Alex stopped and thought about this for a while.
"Ummm, probably the boating. We-"
He was interrupted by one of the men in balaclavas coming back in and making a beeline for them.
"You," he said, pointing at Alex, "come with me."
Ben kept his arms protectively around Alex. "Why?" he asked defiantly. It was definitely a stupid thing to do - this man had a gun! - but Ben couldn't just sit and do nothing.
"If you wish the both of you to remain unharmed, you will let him go and he will come with me."
Ben was uncertain, but Alex made the decision for him by wriggling free, sliding off of Ben's lap and walking up to the man.
"Where are you taking me?" he asked, bravely.
"Be quiet and don't make any trouble, and you'll be fine." The man grabbed Alex's wrist and led him away.
Ben felt like he had let the boy down and he didn't even know him. All he wanted to do was protect him - he was too young to be caught up in something like this. Ben knew that he was too, but the kid could only have been four or five and that made it so much worse.
"Where are we going?" Alex asked inquisitively as he was led down the corridor.
"You'll find out when we get there," the man behind the balaclava said. It was unfortunate that Ian and Alex were here. Yassen sighed. Sometimes he wondered whether he and Ian were destined to always be assigned to opposing sides of their battles. There may be temporary truces, but it was inevitable that they would always find themselves against each other again. Admittedly, Yassen was relieved that he was part of this operation, rather than another Scorpia agent.
They weren't actually looking for an agent of the British Secret Service, but were actually just causing a distraction. Yassen and Sam, who had trained at Malagosto at the same time as him, had been teamed up for this operation. Usually, Malagosto graduates worked alone, but this operation required a two-pronged approach. Yassen and his team would cause a distraction here, drawing the police and secret services away from their main target, whilst Sam led the team at the docks.
Yassen had sighed inwardly the second he saw Ian and Alex walking into the shopping centre. It was typical that Ian would show up at this particular moment, but there was nothing Yassen could do. He said nothing and showed no outward sign of recognition, just continued watching the security tapes with the gang and waiting for the right time. If Ian and Alex had just been coming into the shopping centre to use the toilets, they would just about have made it out before Yassen's team moved in, but he watched them head to the line at McDonalds after using the facilities. They were eating here, and would therefore be caught in the middle of what was about to happen.
The least he could do was make sure that Alex was kept out of it as much as possible. And that meant being the visible face for the hostages that MI6 would be able to see. This way, he would be in a room just with Yassen, who would be the 'face' of the 'negotiations' with the hostage negotiators. Everyone on Yassen's team knew that the hostages weren't to be in any mortal danger, whatever happened. Scorpia didn't really care about the body counts of their operations, but as they were merely a distraction so that resources would be spread a lot more thinly when Sam's team made their move, it didn't make sense to cause any actual harm to the hostages. It was possible that they would need to put on a show of power if it seemed that they were not deemed enough of a threat, but Yassen guessed that showing Alex would be enough to show that they were serious. It would still be safer for Alex if he was out of the reach of the other Scorpia operatives completely, however, as they wouldn't actually care if he lived or died.
On the other hand, Yassen would never let any harm come to Alex, and if he could prevent it, nothing serious would happen to Ian either. Officially, Ian and Yassen had never met. Both Scorpia and MI6 were aware of their connection with John, but as far as both organisations were aware, that was as far as their paths had crossed. The first time they had met on a mission, they had agreed that it would be best if neither of their bosses found out that they knew each other and that they had a sometimes uneasy truce. If they did, they would certainly give orders to stop it at the very least, and at the worst, they could order another agent to take a shot to eliminate their weakness.
Yassen was sure that Ian would recognise him just by looking into his eyes as he took Alex. He had planned it that he would be the person to take Alex - he wanted Ian to know that he was here. Hitting him with the gun had been unavoidable, but he hadn't hit Ian as hard as it would seem to everyone watching. Ian was a good actor, and had reacted like a normal person being hit in the face with a gun, not like someone who was used to being beaten and threatened with death as part of his day job. And he had been right; there had been a flash of recognition in the dark brown eyes. At least they were both on an equal footing now, and knew that the other was there.
He and Alex had reached the room that had become Yassen's base of operations. It was a meeting room that ordinarily would have been hired by the hour and it served their purposes brilliantly. James was standing on guard at the door, and he opened it as the two figures approached.
"In you go," he said, pushing Alex through. Once they were in, Yassen turned and locked the door behind them, pushing a chair underneath the handle as an extra precaution. Alex had taken a few steps into the room, but made no move to do anything unless he was instructed to first. Yassen had to admit that he didn't look as terrified as he probably was, which was quite a feat for a five year old.
He gestured towards a chair and told Alex to sit. He obeyed, clambering up and sitting with his legs swinging slightly, his feet dangling a long way above the floor. Yassen had already set up the laptop with the webcam, but now he positioned it so that Alex would be visible in the picture.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"I'm moving this so that you will be visible on the camera."
"Why?"
"So that the people will be able to see you."
"What people?"
Yassen sighed internally. Most people would not have had the patience for all of Alex's questions, but he didn't really mind. He was purposefully giving Alex answers that prompted him to ask more questions, as a way to distract him from the fact that he was caught up in a hostage situation.
"The people who will be looking."
Alex pouted. Clearly he was used to Ian giving answers like this when he didn't want to talk, so instead of asking more questions, he just sat quietly. After a couple of minutes of silence, Yassen's phone began to ring. It had only been ten minutes since they had taken everyone hostage; they had arrived incredibly quickly.
"Hello?" he answered, knowing that it would be the hostage negotiators who had arrived on the scene.
After some brief introductions, Yassen explained that they were after an agent of the British Secret Service and if they gave themselves up, everyone else could go home. Annoyingly, he knew that that was an option, which shouldn't have been available. He doubted that Mr Blunt would make Ian give himself up, especially as he had Alex with him, but it was a possibility that they hadn't accounted for. There wasn't meant to be an agent in the shopping centre, but there was, so Yassen would just have to improvise if the unthinkable happened and Ian did give himself up.
The negotiator explained that he didn't have any jurisdiction over the intelligence services, so he would need to get them involved to begin the negotiations. Yassen confirmed that he had expected such a response, and hung up.
"Who was that?"
"One of the policemen outside."
"What did they say?" Yassen was glad that Alex was back to asking questions. It hadn't felt natural to be sat in silence with the five year old.
"That they need to get someone else to talk to me."
"Do you have any colouring?" Alex asked, changing the subject abruptly.
"No." Yassen replied bluntly, but not unkindly.
"Could you get some?"
"No." Yassen might care for Alex, but he wasn't going to jeopardize the operation by making himself and his team seem weak by getting a colouring book for one of the hostages. Alex looked sad, but didn't seem like he was going to ask again. "I've got some plain paper that you can draw on with a pencil though?" he suggested.
"Okay," Alex said brightly. "I'm going to draw a shark!"
"Here you go," Yassen said, handing him the paper and a pencil. He was amused to see that Alex still loved sharks a year on from the aquarium when they had last met.
"Thank you." And he still remembered his manners. Yassen wasn't surprised that Alex seemed to roll with whatever punches life threw at him. Ian was becoming more active in the field now that Alex was at school, so he must be away a lot. It surprised Yassen that Ian hadn't got a full-time nanny to look after Alex while he was away, but maybe he just hadn't found the right person yet. A spy could never be too cautious when it came to his family's safety.
"Did you know that the great white shark is actually called carcharodon carcharias? And that their noses sense electrical currents? And that a group of sharks is called a shiver? And that they can smell one drop of blood in twenty five gallons of water? That's about a teaspoon in a swimming pool!" he added helpfully.
Yassen was impressed to hear that Alex had retained the various shark facts that he, himself, had helped to teach him just over a year ago. Of course, Alex wouldn't realise that the man standing before him and 'Thomas', the stranger that had helped him find his uncle in the aquarium, were the same person. He wondered briefly whether Alex remembered that day at the aquarium, or whether he just knew the shark facts. Before Yassen could acknowledge or answer Alex's shark facts, his phone rang again.
"Be quiet. Don't say anything while I am on the phone, unless I tell you to. You may only speak once I tell you that it is okay." Alex nodded, not seeming to grasp the severity of his orders, and went back to drawing his shark.
"Hello?" he said, answering the phone.
"What are your demands?" No introductions or pleasantries this time then.
"Who are you? What are your assurances that our demands can be met?"
"My name is Mrs Jones. I am the deputy director of MI6 Special Operations. I can authorise your demands."
"We have intelligence that there is an agent of yours amongst the hostages. They declare themselves, everyone else leaves unharmed."
"We do not have any active agents in Liverpool at this time." She was lying. They both knew it, but Yassen only knew because of his personal history with Ian. MI6 must have decided that since Ian wasn't an agent on active duty, there was nothing that would link him to MI6 that would be traceable. In normal circumstances, they would have been correct.
"I didn't specify 'active'," Yassen replied coolly. "I specified 'an agent.'"
"When I say 'active agent', I mean an agent who is currently employed by us, whether that be in the field or behind a desk."
"I see. And would you be willing to risk the lives of approximately thirty five civilians, including ten children, for your assertion that you do not have an agent here?"
"There is no agent of ours inside that building. We cannot negotiate if we do not have what you are looking for."
"Suit yourself." Yassen hung up. He looked over at Alex, who seemed too engrossed in his drawing to pay any attention to his surroundings; the shark he had drawn was very impressive, both for the short amount of time that he had spent on it and the fact that he was a five year old. Yassen sat down next to him, and that made Alex look up.
"You can speak now, if you like."
"When can I see Ian?"
"Is Ian the person looking after you?" Alex nodded in reply.
"When all of this is sorted out and we have what we came for."
"What did you come here for?" That would have been a very dangerous question if Alex's guard was anyone other than Yassen.
"I would not ask questions like that if I were you."
This seemed to puzzle Alex. "Why?" he asked.
"It is not important," Yassen said, trying to dissuade him from asking any more questions about it. There weren't any Scorpia operatives in the room with them, so it didn't really matter, but Alex had no idea about the danger he could have been in if it were anyone but Yassen guarding him. He didn't want to set a precedent that Alex could ask questions and always get an answer in case one of the other operatives came in. They shouldn't do as it wasn't part of the plan, but things had been known to go awry in the past, and it wasn't a risk worth taking. If one of them did come in, and Alex began asking more questions, he might be forced to take actions that he would regret.
"Was it McDonalds?" Alex asked knowingly after thinking for a moment. "I'm sure we could get you some if that's it." Yassen smiled behind his balaclava. He really was precious.
"No, we are not here for the McDonalds. Go back to your drawing." Alex didn't seem to mind receiving orders, and obligingly went back to the shark on his paper. Yassen's phone began to ring again, which surprised him. He hadn't expected them to try again so soon. He touched Alex's arm and waited until the boy looked at him, and then held his finger to his lips, signalling him to be quiet again. Alex just nodded and went back to his drawing - he probably hadn't needed to be told.
"Hello?" he asked, for the third time that day.
"We need proof of life of the hostages. We still cannot help you with an agent being in the building, but we can help with the negotiations for when you get out of there."
"You can have your proof of life, with one hostage. Until you are ready to fully enter into these negotiations, that is all you get." Yassen was being deliberately stubborn. It suited his purposes to let the negotiations drag on for as long as possible. "Give me the details, and you can see a hostage." Mrs Jones gave him the details that he needed and he hung up the phone again.
"Alex," he said as he touched the boy's arm again. "The people outside would like to see you."
"Okay," he said, sliding off of the chair.
"No. They are going to see you through the laptop. Come and sit back down."
"With the camera?" Alex asked as Yassen helped him back onto the chair.
"Yes," he replied, slightly surprised that Alex seemed to have taken in what he had said earlier as he adjusted the laptop's webcam.
"Am I allowed to speak to them?"
"They will probably ask you some questions. I am going to be sitting next to you, but out of the sight of the camera, so they will just see you. If I put my thumb up, you can answer their question. If I take it away or don't put it up, do not answer. Tell them that you aren't sure. And do not talk about or show them your shark drawing," he added as an afterthought.
"Okay," Alex said a little hesitantly.
"Would you like to practice first?" Alex nodded.
"Okay," Yassen said, as he adjusted his position. "What's your name?" he asked, and then held up his thumb.
"Alex."
"And how old are you Alex?" he asked, with his thumb still raised.
"I'm five."
"Do you know where you are?" Yassen asked, taking his thumb away.
"I don't know," Alex said.
"Very good. I'm going to connect the camera now, so you'll be able to see them and they'll be able to see you, okay?"
"Okay."
In a couple of moments, the laptop had connected to the network that Yassen had been given. He could see two screens of people looking back at him, presumably Mrs Jones and MI6 on one screen and the hostage negotiator and command centre that were stationed outside on the other.
"This is the youngest person who was here today," Yassen began. "This is the hostage who you can see as proof of life."
"How old is he?" someone asked incredulously.
"He is five."
"What's his name? And can he answer please?" Yassen put his thumb up to show Alex that it was okay to answer.
"My name's Alex."
"Are you hurt, Alex?" Yassen put his thumb up again.
"No."
"Can you show us your hands?" Yassen put his thumb up again.
Alex raised his arms, so that his hands and forearms could be seen on the screen. Yassen heard a muttered "he looks unharmed" from someone on the screen.
"You've had your proof of life. We expect cooperation from you now." Yassen ended the call.
"You did well, Alex."
"Thank you. Can I go back to drawing now?"
"Yes, you may."
In Alan Blunt's office in Liverpool Street, Mrs Jones was worried. Ian was not in Liverpool as an agent, he was simply stopping for lunch with his nephew on their way back from holiday. And she technically hadn't lied to the leader of the hostage takers… they had 'fired' Ian, removing all traces of his employment from their systems. It would be easy enough to reinstate afterwards; they had done it many times for different agents before.
Was it just a coincidence that they had taken Alex as the face of their hostages, or did they know about Ian? They had been listening to Alex and the man's conversation and something didn't add up. This man had just taken thirty five people as hostages, but he had got Alex paper and a pencil to draw with, and had coached him through his instructions for their conversation on the webcam. Or had he just decided that it was easier to give Alex something to draw with than deal with a five year old crying? Whatever the reason, Mrs Jones was uncomfortable, and not just because one of their best agents and his nephew were being held hostage. She didn't know what was going on, and she didn't like not knowing.
The message from Sam came through about twenty minutes after Yassen had first spoken to the hostage negotiators. The operation had gone without any issues. It was time to move out, and Yassen picked up his phone and dialled.
"We're leaving," he said without any preamble. "Do not send anyone after us. The boy is coming with us for now. I will send you the location where he can be picked up. Only one police officer and the man called Ian who was with the boy may come to the location. If you do not follow these instructions, the boy will not be returned." He hung up, without waiting for a response.
"Come with me, Alex."
"Where are we going?"
"We're leaving."
"Can I see Ian now?"
"Soon."
"Can I take my drawing?"
"Yes, you may."
"Thank you."
Yassen removed the chair from in front of the door and unlocked it.
"Clean up, and meet us at the cars," he ordered James. The Scorpia operative would pack up the laptop and remove all traces that they had been in the room. As they walked down the back stairs, Yassen spoke into his walkie talkie.
"The operation has been a success. It is time to go. The boy is coming with us as security for our escape. If the man asks where he is, tell him that the police will bring him to meet us." All of the operatives knew that whichever hostage they took to be shown on camera was leaving with them, but it never hurt to reiterate the plan.
Once they reached the cars, Yassen led Alex to the back door of one of them and gestured for him to climb in. He looked up at the four-by-four.
"It's very high up." Yassen looked at how comically small Alex was compared to the car, and picked him up and put him on the seat.
"There isn't a car seat?" Alex asked questioningly.
"No, we aren't going far."
"But Ian says that I must always sit in my car seat with my seatbelt," Alex protested.
"We don't have a car seat." Alex opened his mouth to protest again, but Yassen interrupted him. "You can sit on my lap if you like?" Alex seemed to think for a moment and then nodded.
Yassen began climbing into the car, and Alex moved over to give him space on the seat. He closed the door and settled himself, picked Alex up and placed him on his lap before strapping them both in with the seatbelt. He would have preferred to be driving, but as he had said to Alex this first section of the journey was going to be short. Once they had made the handoff, Yassen could take over the driving.
It felt so strange to be so close to Alex while he had no idea who Yassen was. In another life, Alex might have looked on him as an uncle, or at least a close family friend, but he knew that Alex would never be able to know who he truly was. As it was, Alex seemed content to sit on his lap and look at the scenery outside the window, even though they hadn't started moving yet. They were silent for a few moments, and then Alex spoke.
"I want to give you something."
"What?" Yassen asked puzzled. Alex held up his shark drawing.
"It's for you."
"Thank you, Alex," Yassen said, unsure how to respond, but holding the drawing that Alex held out. "Just don't tell anyone else about it - it'll be our secret?" It was quite awkward to take the paper, with Alex sitting on his lap, but Yassen managed. He folded it up and put it in one of the zip-up pockets of his trousers.
"Okay. Our secret." he said, going back to looking out of the window. "I spy with my little eye, something beginning with T."
"What are you doing?"
"Playing 'I spy'. You have to guess what I can see that begins with the letter T."
"We are not playing 'I spy'," Yassen said. "The others will be joining us and we will be leaving soon."
"We can all play," Alex suggested.
"No, Alex. Just sit quietly; you will get to see Ian soon. Do not say anything when the others arrive at the car."
Just then, Yassen saw the other operatives making their way towards the cars, and reminded Alex to stay silent from now on. He got some questioning looks at the sight of their hostage sat quite happily on his lap, but nobody said anything out loud. Yassen had given Mrs Jones coordinates for a park just outside of the city, where the ground was open and they would be able to see if there were agents waiting to ambush them. It was a gloomy afternoon, and there were no civilians around that any MI6 agents could blend in with. They pulled up and waited; there was nobody else in sight. To be safe, Yassen checked the thermal imaging and still saw nobody waiting for them. He was glad of that; he really didn't want to get caught up in a gun fight with Alex in the middle.
After a few minutes, a car pulled up and a very anxious and concerned looking Ian got out of the front passenger seat, glancing wildly around him for any sign of Alex. There was a definite black eye where Yassen had hit him with his gun earlier, but he had survived far worse injuries than that in the past.
"It's time to go," he said to Alex as he unbuckled their seatbelt. "We will walk over to Ian together, do you understand?" he asked, shifting Alex off of his lap and onto the seat next to him. He nodded.
Yassen opened the door, and climbed out before picking Alex up and putting him on the floor. Alex casually slipped his hand into Yassen's as soon as he had let go of his waist and they began walking over to Ian. It was the second time in his life that Alex had voluntarily held Yassen's hand, and the thought of what life could have looked like crept unbidden back into his mind.
"Alex!" Ian's shout was full of relief as he saw Alex and a still balaclava'd Yassen walking towards him. He began to run towards them, which was exactly what Yassen had hoped he would do. He needed to apologise for dragging them into the events of the day. They wouldn't be able to have an open conversation, but Yassen had written a note to explain and apologise. He had tucked it into the hood of Alex's jumper, so that he wouldn't have to physically hand it over, but still wanted to make sure Ian picked it up before he left.
"Ian!" Alex shouted back as he saw his uncle running towards them, but he did not try to run himself. He had clearly taken in what Yassen had said about them walking to meet Ian. When they were a couple of meters away from where Ian had come to a stop, Yassen let go of Alex's hand, and he clearly took that as the sign that he could now run to his uncle.
"Oh, Alex!" Ian breathed as he held his nephew close. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah."
Once he had checked Alex over, he stood up, cradling his nephew in his arms. Ian finally looked at Yassen. He didn't say anything, but Yassen saw that he had found and palmed the note before he picked Alex up. Neither of them spoke, but they shared a knowing look before Yassen knew that he had to leave. As he walked away from Ian and Alex, he forced down the sadness as he acknowledged that he could never have a life where Alex knew him. He had a job to do with Scorpia, and if they suspected that he was compromised, Yassen knew that he would either die a very slow and painful death at the hands of Dr Three, or he would be forced to deal with the problem by killing Ian or even Alex. He would not allow that to happen. He didn't look back and by the time he had reached the waiting car and climbed into the driver's seat which had been vacated for him, he had repressed his feelings and was once again Yassen the cold blooded assassin.